Jorge Filipe Pereira

Jorge was born on August 19th, 1977, at Clinica de Sao Cristovao in Alfama at the center of Lisbon, Portugal three years after the Carnation Revolution and the end of dictatorship in Portugal. When he was born, his parents understood that they had a "menino de ouro".

Jorge grew up with his parents Ivo and Irene, and his sister Filipa in an apartment outside of Lisbon in the Largo Sao Cristovao da Gama. His maternal grandparents Avelino and Maria, who helped raise him, lived up the street.

When he was a boy, he would take things to sell at the Feira da Ladra flea market in the center of Lisbon. In the summertime he would travel to visit his mother's family in the north of Portugal where he loved experiencing the more traditional customs of the country that had not yet been tarnished by democracy, capitalism, and modern life.

He began his studies at Externato Sao Miguel Arcanjo and ended them at FAUL Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade de Lisboa. As an architecture student, he would drive 5 minutes from his home to the architecture faculty in Monsanto, an urban mountain park where the esteemed architecture school had moved the year before he was accepted to begin studying there.

From this point forward, Jorge lived body mind and soul the life of an architect. He saw architecture and art in everything around him. In people, in transport, in nature, in drawings, paintings, films and photographs, in his homes, in the people he loved, in his children and in urban life in the cities he knew so well- especially Lisbon and New York.

He was an architect's architect, but he was also a unique visionary. He would make films as he called them all the time in his mind, as soon as he stepped out of the house. He was always imagining things, creating works of art in his mind's eye every day of his life. There are zillions of sketches, photographs, and land sculptures to prove it.

Jorge imagined, designed, and built many projects both enormous and tiny all over the world- in Portugal, Netherlands, Germany, England, New York, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, Brazil, and Madeira Island his father's birthplace. He was a joy to work with both for clients and colleagues. He traveled to many places in his lifetime but he has so many more corners to explore and many more strangers to meet.

His biggest pride were the projects of his children. He was a natural born father, playing with his kids on their level from infancy to pre-teens. The way he communicated with his children before they could speak is both a hilarious story and a brilliant idea, explaining to them the distinctions between the various Portuguese political parties before age 1. The interest he took in the way they see and express the world is an inspiration.

It is without a doubt that we, not just his family and his friends but this world, lost Jorge too soon. He was ripped from us without warning or reason. His illness was too short for our hearts and too long for his body. He was very busy in his lifetime, but he had so much more to do, to show us, to explain to us, and to imagine. He always deserved to have more time to sit back and enjoy the fruits of his labor- the homes and the children he created.

We were the luckiest people on earth to have been graced by Jorge up until the moment of his last breath. Jorge died at home on June 10th, 2026 in the ethereal light filled bedroom he built surrounded by the breath and beating hearts of his family. June 10th is also the day that the Portuguese poet Luis de Camoes died in the year 1580. Perhaps we know now exactly where the great poet Jorge Filipe came to us from.

Jorge is survived by his parents Ivo and Irene, and sister Filipa, his wife Justina, his children Fausto and Nina, and his friend of life Kayt. In addition to many devoted friends, parents in law, sister and brothers in law, uncles and aunts, cousins, and nieces and nephews; Jorge is also survived by a gaggle of colleagues and architects who clucked adoringly alongside him even if they lost touch. Let us keep close connections with Jorge now.